From Sabina Kalyan
Sir: If I understand correctly, Michael Gove is expressing sympathy for the dispirited male who has lost his job because AngloSaxon economic policy reform has sacrificed the manufacturing sector. As a result, said male has lost his ability to attract and/or keep a wife.
On the contrary, I applaud the freeing up of the labour market that has allowed many women to join the workforce, often in parttime jobs that fit around their role as mothers. If this has given them the freedom to be economically independent — the freedom not to have to find a husband to support them — then good for them.
Furthermore, the success of the UK economy is in no small part attributable to these young talented women moving into the workforce — a new pool of talent in an economy whose most valuable asset is its human capital.
We should be aiming to create a highgrowth, high-employment economy, rather than accusing women of snatching jobs away from the patriarchs. And, as a comparison of the French, the German and the UK economic records will show, this will only come when labour markets are less ossified. Structural reform is not easy, and one must be careful not be glib about the short-term costs, but the UK economy is proof that the pay-off is large indeed.
Sabina Kalyan
London EC4
Previous page
